Today's Consult goes out to all of you with kids home today. You get to learn how to build what is apparently a Baltimore tradition -- the snow fort.

I've lived here 15 years, but never heard of this tradition until my neighbor John started piling up the snow he was digging out from around his car. He made the walls curve with an open back, and stacked some snowballs inside.

Then he built another one, and invited our kids over to play with his son. What fun they had!

Here's how to build a snow fort from ehow.com.

Later, John built a tunnel through the fort -- good for escaping the fort while snowballs are flying. But he cautioned that the tunnel should be big enough and the snow pack above it light enough that the snow wouldn't hurt a child if it collapsed.

File photo by Baltimore Sun photographer David Hobby